Hairball band mn biography

The country’s most ambitious cover band is based right here in Minneapolis — and draws bigger and more fanatical crowds than most “real” bands.

A staple of the local scene for almost 20 years, Hairball started out like Spinal Tap on a shoestring budget.

According to longtime guitarist Michael “Happy” Schneider, that meant buying itchy wigs from Halloween shops and leaning on “real dumbed-down comedy,” such as changing the chorus in a seminal ZZ Top single to “every girl crazy ‘bout a a well-hung man.” (Onstage that gag was punctuated with a three-foot, glitter-dusted strap-on.)

But then a strange thing happened: The band realized how many people actually, genuinely miss the hedonistic guitar heroism of the Aqua Net era.

Showmen at heart, Hairball dropped the dick jokes and began dialing in dead-on renditions of arena rock anthems and hair metal hits like Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” Bon Jovi&#